Tech nursing students pledge care and compassion at special white coat ceremony

Tech nursing students pledge care and compassion at special white coat ceremony

On Tuesday, October 24, more than 60 faculty, staff,
students and family members attended the Gold-AACN White Coat Ceremony for 21
sophomore nursing students at WVU Tech.

The event served to bring these students into the fold of
the nursing professional and highlight their commitment to the field.

At the ceremony, students pledged to uphold the standards of
the program, conduct themselves in a “caring and compassionate manner” and “work
earnestly and honestly to achieve the highest level of knowledge” to prepare
themselves for a career in nursing.

Crystal Sheaves, Ph.D., RN, APRN, FNP-BC and chair of the
nursing department at Tech, said that the event was a rite of passage that
nursing students look forward to as they reach this milestone in their
educational careers.

“Our white coat pledge ceremony is where we acknowledge and
welcome them into the nursing profession. They take their pledge to devote
themselves to caring – caring about their patients and caring about their
studies. We're here to honor them," she said.

Abigail Spangler, a nursing student from Lewisburg, West
Virginia, was one of those recognized.

She's currently working as a nurse aid at the hospital in
Lewisburg, and is enthusiastic about what a degree in the field can do to open
up her career options.

"I'm just very excited to be able to care for patients
at an even higher level, and this program is allowing me to do that," she
said.

She has a few years to decide her path after Tech, and she's
thinking about nurse practitioner school or CRNA school. But for now, it’s
a pledge and focusing on the work ahead. She said she feels like she’s part of
something special at Tech.

"I enjoy my classmates and my teachers. They're very
approachable and very friendly, and they're all just willing to help each other
to learn," she said.

Only 50 schools in the nation were selected, and the WVU
nursing programs in Morgantown and Beckley were the only schools selected in
the state for the award.

"I think it shows that we really are working hard to
achieve excellence in nursing,” said Sheaves. “We're working hard to instill in
our nursing students a love of the profession and that caring attitude that
nurses have."